Cadillac CTS-V 2004-2009 - found my v now time for mods

well guys i wired my money out today and should be receiving my 04 black on black v with 18k mi. in about 10 days. now that i got the car looking for some tastful mods. i plan on starting with a specter wing and possible hood, some lowering springs, exhaust and possible a set of headers. new to the v world so any comments on what brands to go with would be appreciated. and if any one has any mods they are wanting to ge rid of i may be interested in thanks for all the help

Buy a shifter and some shifter bushings before any of those mods.
Congrats on the car.

congrats on the new car, personally, before i go ordering 3k worth of parts, i would wait for the car to arrive to make sure its int he shape you think it is(sound slike you didnt see the car before purchase)

specter has a great looking wing, i bought one and it makes the car look 50x better IMO.

headers arent cheap for this car liek they are for fbodies. look to spend at least 900 on the headers without cats, plus midpipes 250, plus a tune 300+, and installation which is gonna be a decent amount unless you do it yourself.

lowering springs go with h&r but make sure you purchase shock spacers for the rear to offset the auto load leveling feature.

a cold air intake doesnt affect performance at all basically so save money and do a drop in k&n filter unless you want the sound and looks of an intake(k&n makes a good kit)

you have about 3 options for hoods, specter which are 1400 bucks before shipping and painting or extremem composites which are north of 1k.

good luck and have fun with it

Sifter, axles & full exhaust. Then save for maggie. congrats.

Congrats on the car. I would agree with getting a new shifter.

Buy a shifter and some shifter bushings before any of those mods.

Shifter

I would agree with getting a new shifter.

Shifter & bushings

i guess the first thing i put on my list will be a shifter. i can't wait for it to get deliveried but then again i guess it doesn't matter because i won't be able to see it until christmas due to me working out of state. but hopefully i can start picking a few of these items up so i will have something to do while i'm home for a couple of weeks during christmas. thanks guys for all the help

Like everyone said, get the shifter and bushings first. I love my Katech shifter and UUC bushings. After that it really depends what you want out of the car, do you race at all or just a fun cruiser.

im just going to use it mainly as cruiser and and my wife's daily driver. i plan on starting out with a shifter some apperance mods and exhaust

For the Shifter, I would highly recommend the UUC shifter over the Katech..
I just bought the Katech and now realize the huge difference in the two, that being the urethane bushing built into the UUC for the side bolt for the fork... that is a HUGE difference rather than using the STOCK that is needed for the KAtech.. and if you have a problem like me, on a car with only 18K miles on it... the stock plastic washers around the metal sleeve for the side bolt that you NEED to reruse for teh KATECH.. fell apart in my hands like an old cookie... had to FAB up my OWN from then on...

I am saying, the expense is worth the UUC vs Kateck.

Nothing against KATECH - but for the super fancy aircraft looking piece, its lacking what CAUSES some of the 'LIMP NOODLE' feel ... connection to the shifter fork...

Here is what Im taking about:
See attach

I just bought the uuc bushing for 30 bucks and used it on the katech shifter which is over a hundred bucks cheaper. The math was pretty simple for me, i even waited for a katech sale and got it cheaper. I love the katech shifter, couldn't be happier.

im just going to use it mainly as cruiser and and my wife's daily driver. i plan on starting out with a shifter some apperance mods and exhaust

I don't even know if you'll want to do the suspension stuff then, it will lower at the cost of some ride comfort. I'm just thinkin the wife would rather take the comfort. I'd just do exhaust and a shifter and see how you like it, then step up to the headers since thats another grand.

I just bought the uuc bushing for 30 bucks and used it on the katech shifter which is over a hundred bucks cheaper. The math was pretty simple for me, i even waited for a katech sale and got it cheaper. I love the katech shifter, couldn't be happier.

I HIGHLY recommend the UUC bushings for sure... for the SIDE bars... but has nothing to do with the bushing i was talking about.

its 100 bucks cheaper for a reason!!!!
... you are forced to RE-USE the bushing/seal/spacer using the kateck...
As noted... this the usual CTS-V cheap ass item, crumbled... (those TWO little plastic Collars you re-use ARE JUNK!
It would not matter WHAT shifter you had in there.. this is the bushing that connected to the arm that SHIFTS in the tranny... sloppy movement from shit parts will NOT give you your FULL feel. UUC has this BUILT in with Poly bushings as seen in my prior picture. No doubt katech is BETTER than stock... but it has an underlying flaw that in the long run is NOT worth saving 100 bucks... few years from now.. you will be tearing it out and stuffing metal in that big hole in the kateck and drilling out the 1/2inch hole for the bolt...because that soft feel will come back when the GM shit plastic in there deteriorates...

Please refer to pic or page 5 of YOUR KATECH instructions.

Best option is UUC short shifter with UUC bushings hands down... better product, better lasting piece and elimination of re-using stock crap that DOES fall apart.

thanks guys for the advise on the shifters i will definately do some more research on each one and then make my mind up. as far as lowering it i know i will be giving up some ride quality but wouldn't think it would be that noticeable. at least for me since i am always in my 1 ton welding truck (which really isn't that bad) but it isn't a cadillac. but she might notice it since she is going from her 09 escalade. really not sure which one would ride better the v or the escalade. i would think the v just for being a car. the only real reason for me wanting to lower it is because they look so dam good. thanks guys for all the help i always like to hear everyones options on different products keep em coming

09 escalade= much better ride

remember that the V is a handling car so it already has a firmer ride then the standard cadillac. the V rides great but not as good as a DTS.

Congrates,ive been kinda of looking myself,i might be bias ,but if your going to spirtly drive the car i would say our axle is a must have:angel:

the Katech shifter is an excellent choice. Regarding those little bushings you have to re-use, not really that big a deal. I found a set of poly ones that I installed and it works great. BTW, I have 3 of those white bushings laying around that are in excellent condition, if anyone needs them, I will let them go for 10 each.

I really wish I took a picture of them little white 'JUNK' bushings. EDIT** I actually took one! I have pics of the junk bushings if anyone is interested. - didnt realize til I went over the install pics.
So in my case, it was a big deal to REUSE them as they fell apart into a dozen pieces... its a SHIT setup from the get go.

Im not knocking the shifter what so ever, its a nice piece, works well... after I had to 'make it right'

I would highly suggest to NOT re-use these little white ones from the car and do some other Poly bushings like VeryWhiteDevil suggested he did...

the Katech shifter is an excellent choice. Regarding those little bushings you have to re-use, not really that big a deal. I found a set of poly ones that I installed and it works great. BTW, I have 3 of those white bushings laying around that are in excellent condition, if anyone needs them, I will let them go for 10 each.

where did yo get the poly bushings from?